Desert Boy Rides a Horse in the Kitchen

This morning I was in the kitchen eating breakfast when Desert Boy came trotting in on his horse. I couldn't help myself, I totally cracked up. The little stuffed horse is tiny in comparison to him, but still he thought up the idea all on his own and had a lot of fun riding his horse.

He even had some good horse riding noises and made the horse go in all different directions.

After a bit of riding nicely, he decided it was time to get adventurous.

His California cousins do vaulting, gymnastics on horseback, so maybe he was inspired by them as he started doing some interesting moves.

How low can you go?

Golly, I wish I was so flexible!

But alas, even a toy horse can buck, and Desert Boy ends up flat on his back on the ground. 

Desert Destination: Lexington Arch

Every Monday we visit a desert destination.

This past weekend, I decided to take a trip to Lexington Arch in Great Basin National Park. It's located in a remote canyon and doesn't get many visitors. But it should get more. Most arches are found in sandstone, but this 75-foot tall arch is in limestone, making it a little different. 

It's a twelve mile drive on a gravel road from the highway to get to the parking lot at the start of the hike. We didn't see any other vehicles on the gravel road.

Once we got there, it was time to get out the backpack. Desert Boy was very excited to go on a hike. So was Henry. Although dogs aren't usually allowed on trails in national parks, most of this trail is on Bureau of Land Management land, and so the park has made an exception and allows leashed dogs to also go on the last little bit of trail that is on national park land.

The first sign at the trailhead says the arch is 1.5 miles away, but the next sign and the pamphlet from the visitor center say it's 1.7 miles. One other thing that might be helpful to know is that the hike starts about 7,400 feet (2,270 m) and the arch is about 8,400 feet (2,570 m), so there's a 1,000 foot (300 m) elevation gain. The oxygen can be a little thin if you're coming from a lower elevation.

The trail starts out through a pinyon pine and juniper woodland, and then switchbacks up a sagebrush-covered hillside. It seems like the switchbacks will never end, but finally the trail heads into a Douglas-fir and white fir forest. 

The trail heads out to an overlook where you can get a good view of the arch. A bench is provided so you can take a rest and watch the birds. I watch birds a lot when I want to catch my breath. On this particular day, we heard and saw some raucous Clark's Nutcrackers flying about, looking for seeds to put into their caches for the winter.

One hypothesis of the formation of Lexington Arch is that it used to be part of a cave system, and the rest of the cave collapsed, leaving just this arch. If that's what happened, I sure would have loved to have seen the rest of the cave, because the arch opening is humongous! Nearly all the caves around this area are rather small and involve crawling.

Following the overlook, the trail descends to cross this wash via the bridge. Do you see the snow on the bridge? Yep, it was a little chilly, but that made it easier to hike than on a hot summer day. Water flows in the wash generally only during flash floods or fast snow melt on high snow pack years. Some people think that Lexington Arch should be called Lexington Bridge. A natural bridge is formed by running water eroding away the weaker stone, whereas an arch is formed by the processes of weathering, like freezing, wind, and erosion. Perhaps this creek used to flow through Lexington Arch/Bridge, but later the channel changed and now it goes on the side.

A few more switchbacks up a steep, rocky section, and then we're under the arch! Desert Boy was glad to get out of the backpack and have a snack. The view is spectacular, looking down the canyon and out into the valley.

The arch seems even bigger when you're under it. 

Here's another view of the arch, this time from below it. Old maps show a trail that follows the gully from the trailhead to the arch. I've taken it before, and much of the old trail is obliterated, making the hike a bushwhack with lots of rose bushes, downed trees, and rock hopping. So although it might be shorter on the map, in real life it really isn't a shortcut.

The hike makes a great half-day destination. No water is available here (unless you get lucky and experience a flash flood), so bring all you need. And sometimes no one comes here for a few days at a time, so it wouldn't hurt to tell someone where you're headed just in case you have vehicle trouble. It's great to be able to go visit something so huge and beautiful and not worry about it being overcrowded!

Sunday Fun: Animal Noises

Desert Boy has been working on his animal noise repertoire. He cooperated for a little film shoot this morning so you can join in on the fun. 

Sheep Camp

November is the month when sheep usually come into our valley for winter grazing. In the old days, it was a rush to bring sheep from more populated areas along the Wasatch Front in Utah out to our isolated valley. There would be one or two sheepherders for each 2,000 sheep. A sheepherder would live out of his wagon, going to a rural store every few weeks to get supplies. Otherwise, it was him, the sheep, his horse, and his dogs. A pretty solitary life.

Today it's still a fairly solitary life for sheepherders. Not many people want to do it, and sheep operators often have to recruit men from other countries to be sheep herders. We see quite a few Peruvians come to this area, spending a year or two watching sheep before they go back to see their families.

Our ranch doesn't raise sheep anymore and hasn't for quite awhile, but we still have this old sheep wagon. The other day I decided to take a peek at it to try to get some insight into what it was like being a sheep herder.

The interior is sort of like an ultra-mini-RV. There's a bed, folding tables, and built in seats with storage space underneath.

One big difference from today's RVs is the presence of this coal/wood burning stove. Because sheep herders are out in these wagons on the desert valleys in the winter, it can get really cold. Sometimes they even get trapped by blizzards for days at a time.

Here's a wider view of the "kitchen/living area" of the sheep wagon. A sheep herder really doesn't have room for a lot of extra stuff.

There are some compartments on the outside of the sheep wagon, like this one for coal. There's a big one under the bed for spare tires, fuel, and other equipment. Often a separate wagon is left next to the sheep wagon carrying hay for the horse.

The wagons are simply built. A back window is a bit of a luxury. There are no shocks on the chassis, so everything has to be well secured before moving the wagon to a new location. Nowadays, the wagon is moved every week or two as the sheep continue moving to graze available forage.

The wagon above is obviously old, and you're probably wondering if sheep herders still live so primitively.

The answer is no. This is a newer sheep wagon. It still has small windows, a small shape, lots of storage compartments, and a wood burning stove. But it also has solar panels. 

A Desert Dump

While I was out walking this morning, some brown objects amongst the desert vegetation caught my attention. A small wash had some old, rusty tin cans in it. I decided to take a closer look, and started walking up the wash. 

Dumps in the desert are fairly common, especially because early miners rarely took any garbage with them. They didn't have Uhauls back then; they often were lucky to have a good wagon. Many miners only took what they could carry on their back from one mining town to the next. Once in awhile they left something interesting behind.

Some bright blue glass was a nice bit of color contrasting with the other trash. Often people go out and scour the desert looking for these trash piles, because an intact bottle might be worth a dollar or two if it's old enough.

Some of the old debris is a bit confounding. Why is this metal bucket filled with concrete? Washes can be good places to find the old trash because it gets washed down them, and it was also easier for people to throw things downhill or dump a wagon into the gully.

I walked long enough to find the motherlode, a huge pile of old tin cans. I happened to be on National Park Service land, and the park archeologist has trained the staff not to pick up old cans like this. Even though it might look like trash to most of us, because it is over 50 years old, it is considered historic, and is thus protected. If the old tin cans are taken to the archeologist, she loses information about where they came from. She also has to catalogue them and put them in the museum. The museum is a locked room where no one gets to see them, so they don't do much good there. She likes to tell the story of a Boy Scout troop who thought they were doing a good deed and brought her three or four trash bags full of old tin cans. She had to process each one, plus they made the historic district they were taken from lose some of its flavor.

When I look at these trash piles, I can only wonder what people are going to think about our trash someday. 

How Much Do You Want to See?

Yesterday we took Henry to be neutered. I had my camera with and the vet said it was fine to take pictures, so I took photos of the whole procedure. At first I thought there was no way I was going to put them on the blog, but then my husband said I should ask you, my readers, if you wanted to see the photos. Do you want to know step by step how a dog is neutered? Or would you rather not? 

The photo above is Henry four hours after the surgery. He spent the day pretty groggy and with definitely a lot less energy, but he didn't want to lay around the whole time. The vet said that was good, movement will help with the healing. The vet was glad we had brought him in; he said that unless dogs are going to be used for breeding, it's best to get them neutered or spayed early on. They get along better with their owners and don't add to the high number of unwanted animals. 

Don't forget to leave your vote! 

Desert Boy and Henry Play

Desert Boy and Henry headed into the yard to enjoy some of the beautiful autumn weather a few days ago. Desert Boy really likes being pushed on his little bike. He also sometimes shuffles it along--his legs still aren't quite long enough to reach the pedals. Here he is with one of those fun expressions. 

Then he discovers a ball and heads over to it. "Ball" is another one of his first words, and he keeps repeating it over and over whenever he sees anything that remotely resembles a ball.

Henry is also fascinated with balls, so as soon as Desert Boy has it, Henry wants it. Desert Boy isn't intimidated by Henry, despite being heftily outweighed by him, and tries to keep it away. Is he successful?

Not quite, but at least he finds another ball to play with.

He throws the ball to Mama and comes to get it. Please note what Henry is doing in the background: destroying the swing! It only took him all summer to gnaw off a part of the board. If only I can train him to eat all the leaves that will be soon covering the yard.

Desert Boy the Plumber

Desert Boy the Plumber says go vote today!

Because we live out in the boonies, we actually had to vote last week because we're a mail-in district and wanted to make sure our ballots got to the county clerk's office in time. I sort of miss going to a polling place, passing the people outside on the sidewalk trying to convince you at the last minute to vote for their candidate, waiting in line, and going into the little booth and pressing the buttons to make those important choices. On the other hand, mailing a ballot in does have some perks like being able to vote wearing pajamas.

Whatever the results, it will be nice to have an end to the advertisements, excessive TV coverage, and most of all, all the phone calls. The 45-second surveys generally last several minutes, and if a survey is supposed to last 5 minutes, you better be prepared for 15. Eeesh. A couple calls have been sort of amusing: a candidate saying he is for taking the water in our valley and exporting it (hmmm, I think we are the wrong target audience for that phone call), and another for a candidate that lives in Virginia. That dialer sure got the wrong area code!

Have a good election day, and if you have any plumbing problems, Desert Boy is really good at flushing.

Desert Destination: Hunting

Every Monday we visit a desert destination.

I haven't taken many interesting trips lately, so I was searching my photos for a good place to take you on this desert destination Monday. I do have a lot of new photos of the equipment yard, my most recent destination, but I will save those for later in the month. They're providing a lot of inspiration for my novel I'm writing for NaNoWriMo, entitled "Adventures in the Junkyard." I figure that it's only appropriate that my blog provide my inspiration for my writing.

So today we're going to take a different kind of trip. It's hunting season. Elk, mule deer, and pronghorn antelope are the three big targets around here. The exact dates for hunting vary depending on the type of weapon used and the hunting unit. 

Now even though Desert Boy is dressed in the photo above in his camo pants and ball cap, we didn't really go hunting this year. My husband used to hunt, but works too much now to do it. These days my nephews hunt. I've never hunted, my family was just not into it. But every once in awhile we get to eat some venison steaks or venison stew or my absolute favorite, venison ribs. And then I sure appreciate hunters.

Today we're going on our virtual hunt. You try to figure out what animal we're hunting by the clues below.

Clue 1: the scat.

Clue 2: the footprint.

Clue 3: part of the leg and a hoof.

Clue 4: the animal eating yummy alfalfa.

Okay, you've probably guessed it, our virtual hunt is for a mule deer. Mule deer are considered to be abundant animals today, but interestingly enough, before European settlers came, they were relatively rare. It wasn't easy for the Native Americans to catch a deer, and thus they had to rely on much smaller game, like rabbits. Why are there so many deer today? One of the main reasons is that there is more food available for deer. Deer prefer grazing on shrubs rather than grasses, while livestock prefer grasses and forbs. When European settlers brought their livestock to the area, it they changed the vegetation dynamics. Livestock grazing stimulates shrub growth. It also reduces fine fuels and decreases the fire cycle, thus allowing shrubs an even better chance to grow and flourish. Of course, everything has a cycle, and if you'd like to read more about mule deer population cycles, here's a great pamphlet.

One final photo for our hunt. If you've ever wondered what a skinned deer looks like, now you have your answer. Bon appetit.

Last Fall Colors

I woke up yesterday morning and saw dark clouds over the mountains. I figured we were in for another blah day, and I was right, except for about five minutes early in the morning, when the sun peaked through some clouds just over the horizon and lit up the trees. I'd estimate that over half the leaves in town have fallen off the trees, and with the impending bad weather, more are going to fall soon. So I snapped away, trying to capture some of the last glorious color on the trees.

Even trees that have lost most of their leaves, like this elm, still looked good with that early morning light and the storm clouds in the background.

The Lombardy poplar's almost vertical branches catch a lot of the leaves as they fall off. During the winter some birds will nestle into the tree, using the leaves as insulation to help keep warm. When I walk by them, the birds fly off and I feel a little bad about disturbing them.

Here are some of our neighbor's cows, with the mountain range to the north in the background. Early morning light really highlights how rough the foothills are.

I can't help but think when I look at these beautiful leaves on the trees that soon I will be raking them into huge piles! The cows love to eat them, so I take them to the pasture. If you're asking why we just don't let the cows into the yard, the answer is simple: cow pies!